Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technical field for detecting an abnormality of a transport container, in an apparatus that processes substrates having been carried into the apparatus with the use of the transport container, or in a case where a plural numbers of such apparatuses are used.
Description of Related Art
In a semiconductor manufacturing factory, semiconductor substrates are contained in a transport container, and the transport container is transported to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus by an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) or an overhead hoist transporter (OHT). The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus includes a carry-in and carry-out port through which semiconductor substrates are carried into and carried out from the transport container, and a processing block that processes the semiconductor substrates. A sealed-type transport container provided on its front face with a lid is most widely used. For 12-inch semiconductor wafers, a transport container abbreviated as FOUP is used. The FOUP includes a resin transport container (container main body), which is provided on its front face with a lid. Two key holes are formed in an outer face of the lid.
The carry-in and carry-out port is usually referred to as load port, which includes a stage onto which the FOUP is placed from outside and a mechanism for removing the lid. There are various semiconductor manufacturing apparatus adapted for respective processes for semiconductor manufacturing, such as a film forming apparatus, an apparatus for forming a mask pattern, an etching apparatus, a cleaning apparatus and so on. Semiconductor substrates are sequentially transported among these apparatuses with the use of the transport container.
Transport containers such as FOUPs are provided by plural manufacturer based on the SEMI standard. However, there may be a transport container out of the SEMI standard. When such an abnormal FOUP is used in a semiconductor manufacturing factory, a scratch damage of a wafer during removal of the wafer from the FOUP or another failure may occur. Although Patent Document 1 discloses a structure for checking storage condition of wafers which is semiconductor substrates contained in a FOUP, the structure cannot solve the above problem.
Patent Document 1: JPH4-321253A